Well, good morning.
We're studying our way through the book of Ephesians.
We're in chapter five today.
And here's what we've been saying, just to review, in case you haven't been with us.
The main point of Ephesians is what God has done for us in Christ, and how we should live in light has done for us in Christ.
This is exactly that.
Chapters 1 through 3, what God has done for us in Christ.
Chapters 4 through 6 transition out of that, how we should live in light of it.
And what we've been saying is that we live out the chapters 4 through 6, how we should live, in light of, and through chapters 1 through 3.
Meaning, another review, this is what we've been saying.
Our walk with Jesus is not for God's love.
Our walk with Jesus is from God's love.
Now, that distinction can take you from being a weary, condemned, self-righteous, judgmental, worn out, burned-out Christian, and it can transform you into being imperfect, but fully forgiven, fully righteous in Jesus, free and still growing and transforming.
That distinction, am I living for God's love or from God's love?
When our three girls were little, we had several mantras in our family.
The one in the morning was we would drive them to school, and just before they got out of the car, we said this every morning, over and over, like 10 years of saying this over and over and over again, we would pray for them and then we would say, You are chosen, loved, forgiven, and never alone.
You are chosen, loved, forgiven, and never alone.
Right before they get out of the car.
Every morning for 10 years, you are chosen, loved, forgiven, never alone.
Now at night after dinner, we would have a little dance party or maybe a wrestling match or something.
And then it was, you know, bath time, books, bed, young parents, you know, you know what I'm talking about.
You're like, I know that routine.
We did that for 10 years.
And we would snuggle them into bed, and every night we would say, Who made you?
And hopefully they would say, God.
And then we'd say, What is God?
And they would say, God is love.
And then we would say, When does God love you?
And they would say, All the time.
Now, now they snuggle us into bed, and they're like, Dad, you know, who loves you, Dad?
God, God loves me.
Now, why did we do this?
Well, because some things need to be repeated.
Some things just need to be repeated over and over and over again.
Paul spends three chapters rooting and resting us into Jesus' work for us before anything about us living for him.
And then finally we get to chapter four.
Okay, give me something to do.
Like, how do I live?
Tell me something.
And even then, Paul keeps repeating himself.
See, it is vital that we don't leave Jesus to go live for Jesus.
And if you've been religious in your life, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
It's very easy to leave Jesus to go and do all this stuff for Jesus.
So, what does he repeat?
Well, Ephesians 5, 1 and 2.
Therefore, be imitators of God, okay, as beloved children.
There it is.
It's just like he's gotta say it over and over again.
He's gonna say it.
He's gonna root us in over and over again.
Verse 2, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.
A fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Point number one is this we live the Christian walk through our identity in Jesus.
Verse number one, this be imitators of God as beloved children.
Paul reminds us who we are so that we might live a particular way.
And he says, who you are, is you're not just a mom or a dad or husband or wife or even somebody's child or a particular student or some occupation, and you might be a big deal or a little deal or whatever.
He's not you are at the core of who you are, you are a beloved son, you are a beloved daughter.
You are already fully loved, fully delighted in, fully adored by God.
Each evening, most evenings, my wife Christy and I will walk around Lewis Park, this park that's just right here.
It's about a 25-minute loop for us from our house.
And she likes to tell me things.
She likes to tell me lots of things on this walk.
It's been a day.
She's worked, she's helped our girls out.
Um, she has had thoughts and she has had feelings.
Um, and she tells me about work, she tells me about her employees, she tells me who she needs to hire, she tells me about our girls and what's happened during the day.
She gives me all the tea and the drama and the stories.
She tells me lots of problems.
Life has lots of problems.
And what I've learned is, taking 21 years, most of the time she doesn't want me to fix anything, although that's the exact thing I want to do.
I think I can really fix anybody's problem.
She just wants me to listen.
Most of the time, just walk, talk, listen to all these problems.
Now imagine, just imagine, we're finishing dinner and we're doing the dishes, and I'm finishing up the dishes, and I turn to her and I say, hey, we really need to get that walk done because uh you're just gonna be you know upset if I don't do that with you.
Like you're just gonna you're gonna be a bit of a pill if I don't, you know, check that off.
So we need to go ahead and go ahead and clear that off.
Well, we would get the same behavior, right?
We would still walk together.
She could still talk to me, walk all the way around the park, come home.
But something would have changed.
I mean, something really important would have changed when a motive moves from love to fear.
I fear the relationship could be in jeopardy, so let's just go ahead and do that so I stay on your good side.
As soon as fear and obligation begin, everything's sort of changed, it's different, it's not the same.
And it begs the question is our walk with God from fear and obligation, or is our walk with God from love, from a position of being loved and loving?
Because that's totally different.
In verses one and two, Paul is saying over and over again, you are dearly loved.
The motivation to be holy, to walk in godliness, is not fear and obligation, it's love.
Paul roots our walk with Jesus and our identity as God's beloved children.
We do not leave Jesus to go live for Jesus.
In fact, we rest more into Jesus' goodness, so to live for Jesus.
Point number two is this we continually return, it's a continual return to who Jesus is for us as we aim to live like Jesus.
These two things are connected.
Your justification as a Christian fuels your sanctification as a Christian.
Your justification, who you are in Jesus, deemed by Jesus' gift alone, fuels how we live for him.
This section actually breaks it down for us in verses three through seven, bad patterns to avoid.
And then in verses eight through ten, new patterns for us to live out in our new identity.
Look how Paul constructs the entire passage.
If we think about it, verses one through two, our position with God as children and our call to walk in love.
Okay, what does that mean?
What does it mean for us to walk in love?
And here's what he goes into, verses three through seven.
But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.
Let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor true joking which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.
For you may be sure of this that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
Therefore do not become partners with them.
So let's break it down.
First, verse five.
Paul's not talking about believers who struggle.
In verse five, he's talking about people who have given themselves over to vices, giving themselves over to sexual morality.
It is their savior and deliverer.
This is what they live for.
And verse six then says, Paul is saying, a holy life matters.
A sinful life is destructive to your heart, to other people, relationships, family, society, communities, church.
A holy life matters.
Now back to verse 3.
Very clear.
It's wrong to be consumed by sexual immorality and lust or coveting somebody else's body to get your own pleasure, selfish gain.
In fact, good sex in marriage is actually the opposite of that.
Good sex inside of marriage becomes about loving the other person for their pleasure.
And the call here is not just to avoid certain acts.
It's there.
But the call is even to avoid thinking and talking wrongly about sex.
And you go, great, well, how do I do that when my mind is like headed there or is there or stay there?
Well, verse 4 says, thanksgiving is actually the answer.
Paul says, try being thankful instead.
Like, rather than just staring at a vice and saying no, turn your mind and heart and move it to a better promise.
Turn your heart attention, your heart affection to being thankful.
And Paul is not saying live purely so that you'll become saints.
No, no, no, no.
He's saying because you are saints, live purely.
See, there's an order to grace.
It's not obedience to Christ so that you might gain an identity in Christ.
Rather, it's identity in Christ by grace so that you might live out obedience to Christ.
Again, that's that distinction.
That's the difference between being weary and condemned or being free and growing.
We could say it this way: our moral life is the fruit of our justification and adoption.
That's a very theological way to say it.
Some of y'all love that.
Our moral life is the fruit of our justification and adoption.
We are living out who we already are in Christ.
And that's why so often when we're living in a way contrary to God, in a sinful way, as we're doing it or just after, you think to yourself, this just isn't who I am.
Because it's not.
You are a different person.
You're a new creation with a new way to live.
Verses 8 and 9.
For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
Walk as children of light.
For the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.
Point number three is this you are completely holy in Jesus' work for you.
So that's as to say, our sin is put upon the cross, so you're fully forgiven.
Jesus' righteousness, his righteousness record is put upon you.
It's not your record.
So you are fully God's.
You are holy in Jesus' work for you.
Therefore, living holy is not about earning God's favor, but resting in the love already given to you.
Paul says that the source of power comes from remembering who you are.
Verse 1, dearly loved children.
Verse 8, you are light in the Lord.
So walk in that identity, so walk in that light.
Now, verse 10.
And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.
Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.
For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.
But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible.
For anything that becomes visible is light, therefore it says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
So we ask God, please show me the ways I'm believing lies.
We don't just get a behavior, a sinful behavior.
It comes from a lie.
We believe a lie.
This will give me whatever.
This will make me fulfill.
This will make me feel whole.
This will make me feel important.
There's the lie.
Now out of that comes the behavior.
We call that the sin under the sin.
And so we say to God, God, help me understand the darkness that is in me, the lies I'm believing, shine light on it for me.
And all the while, in all of that, we're living out that walk, that Christian walk in grace.
That we're fully forgiven, fully righteous, fully his.
Free.
We're free to do whatever we want.
So, what does that mean?
Well, it means our hearts should be healing and transformed and want to walk with Jesus.
In Galatians, Paul actually elaborates on this freedom and how it works in us.
Galatians 5, 13 and 14.
You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh.
Rather, serve one another humbly in love.
For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Point number four is this in gospel freedom, our walk with Jesus is expressed in love for people.
That's because we're being freed from our own self.
We're being freed from our life, just being inwardly bent upon ourselves that everything is about us gaining pleasure or feeling more important or feeling more loved or more accepted because we actually believe that in Jesus we already are important.
Already loved, already accepted.
So we're getting over ourselves.
And we can begin to see other people and actually care for them and love for them and be for them.
Do you remember the show Downton Abbey?
It's been a while.
Season two, that's even longer, maybe 10 years ago or so.
And William was the sweet second fort footman.
He was like the second, he was under Thomas.
You remember Thomas was like the head servant, and then William was under Thomas, and William loved Daisy.
That's William and Daisy.
William loved Daisy.
But Thomas, a little bit better looking, better positioned in the house, Thomas loved to flirt with Daisy to his own entertainment.
He didn't really like her.
He just liked to flirt with her and lead her on.
And William just had to watch this.
Now, before William goes off to war, Daisy realizes that William loves her.
Then William goes off to war.
He gets wounded, he comes back to see Daisy, and she doesn't really love him romantically, but out of kindness, she marries him as he's dying.
Now that's a lot of soap opera.
It was an emotional journey.
It was a lot for us.
Those of you that went through it, we went through a lot, it was a lot.
Okay, then there's William's dad, Mr.
Mason.
And Mr.
Mason owns a farm, and he wants Daisy to come visit him.
And it's the last thing she wants to do.
This whole marriage thing felt a little awkward.
She did it for William.
She did it out of kindness.
She didn't romantically love him like William loved her.
She doesn't want to go see Mr.
Mason.
Finally, she's like, I just gotta go.
I just gotta get it out of the way.
I gotta be done with this.
She visits the farm.
Here's the conversation we get.
Daisy says she shouldn't have gone to all this trouble.
Not for me.
I don't deserve it.
Not when I was only married to William for a few hours.
Mr.
Mason says, You may not know this, Daisy, but William had three brothers and a sister, all dead at birth or not long after.
I think that's one reason why William married you, so that I would not be alone.
Without you, I'd have no one to pray for.
I think William knew that.
So will you be my daughter?
Let me take you into my heart.
Make you special.
You'll have parents of your own, of course.
And then she interrupts him and she says, I haven't got any parents.
Not like that.
I've never been special to anyone.
Mr.
Mason says, Except William.
And she says, That's right.
I was only ever special to William.
Never thought of it like that before.
And then he says to her, Well, now you're special to me.
Daisy's done everything to put Mr.
Mason off.
She has gone out of her way to push him away.
She's clung to the belief that you can't receive love from someone unless your love is equally back to them, which just isn't true.
Especially isn't true when it comes to relationship with God.
Because he loves us like a perfect father, perfect love.
And we love him like imperfect children.
See, for Daisy, love is this for that, sort of a circle.
Like you do this and I do that.
You do this and I do that.
Like I'm gonna earn it and you give it back.
But love doesn't work like that.
That's not how love works.
Love is much more the fire hydrant of one way love to you.
And this is how Mr.
Mason is relating to Daisy.
One way.
He's not loving her based on her love for him.
He's loving her based on his son's love for her and his love for her.
Right?
He loves her like William loved her.
He loves her like William adored her.
I mean, what an amazing picture of the gospel.
That God does not relate to us based on our feelings or our record or resume or our passion or even our obedience.
Because it's not based on our love for him, it's based on his love for us.
And Paul says this secure identity, but I just said all of that gives you such security with God.
Secure identity.
This secure identity as his beloved son, as his beloved daughter, that is the fuel of walking with him.
It's the fuel to say no to the bad patterns and to say yes to the good patterns.
Being deemed holy by Jesus, by grace alone, is the actual fuel for living holy with Jesus.
Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, thank you.
Thank you so much that you don't just tell us how to live, but you call us your own before we earned it.
Through the gift of your son, through your love to us, you call us as a beloved son, beloved daughter.
And we are this apart from our record or resume.
And then thank you that the way in which we walk with you is fueled by this secure identity, by your grace alone.
Help us to rest and see and gaze and behold all the more how precious Jesus is for us.
In Christ's name.